The Council and the Throne

Sophia's POV

The formal council session convened two weeks after Leonidas died, on a Thursday morning that was cold and clear, the winter light coming through the chamber's high windows at the specific, uncompromising angle of a season that has nothing to soften it and has decided not to try.

I dressed with deliberate care.

Not the plain black of the mourning period, which had served its purpose and had served it well. Something else — a deep, dark green that I had ...